Diane Dimond
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Diane Dimond is former reporter for Court TV and a longtime television journalist, reporter and hostess. Ms. Dimond was a correspondent for both Hard Copy and Extra before moving to CNBC in 1998 to co-host the news-related program Upfront Tonight with Geraldo Rivera. Following its cancellation in 2000, Dimond signed on with MSNBC as both a reporter and hostess. After a brief stint with the Fox News Channel, she joined Court TV as a sometime anchor and regular reporter in 2003, gaining increased notoriety for her work as a correspondent during the Michael Jackson child molestation trial for which he was acquitted in June 2005. During the trial, Dimond made frequent appearances on NBC's Today Show, Larry King Live, Inside Edition, the Don Imus radio program and many other outlets giving updates on the proceedings. In 2005, Court TV, citing financial strains from expanded trial coverage on both the Scott Peterson murder case and the Michael Jackson case, decided not to renew Dimond's contract and her entire investigative unit was disbanded. After leaving Court TV Dimond's book on her decades long investigation of Jackson was published by Simon and Shuster's Atria books. Entitled, "Be Careful Who You Love - Inside the Michael Jackson Case" it is often vilified by Jackson fans[citation needed].
Earlier in her career, which began at the 50 thousand watt KOB Radio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Dimond worked as a Washington based newscaster on NPR's All Things Considered, as a national political reporter for the now defunct RKO Radio Networks,and as a TV reporter for WCBS-TV in New York.[citation needed]
Ms. Dimond is of French Canadian and Irish extraction and lives in Rockland County, New York, with her husband Michael Schoen, also a journalist.
Dimond can be heard, along with professional mediator Lee Jay Berman and comedian Louise Palanker on [TalkItOver[1], a lively call-in program that helps listeners with personal conflicts through the use of mediation tools, common sense and humor. Her official website can be found at www.dianedimond.net.
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[edit] Official Biography
Diane Dimond is a modern day, award winning journalist who defies a category. She's been called "A renaissance broadcaster" for her versatility on-air and "A reporter's reporter" for her consistently high-quality investigative storytelling. Dimond's greatest talent may be her ability to speak of complicated stories in an understandable, common-sense way.
Most recently Diane was seen by millions on Court TV, NBC's Today Show, MSNBC, Larry King Live and news outlets worldwide reporting on the Michael Jackson child molestation case. Her book on Jackson, "Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackson Case", published by Simon and Schuster and released in November 2005, is an explosive tome detailing Dimond's exclusive revelations from 1993 when she first broke the story - to the case 10 years later when, once again, Dimond was the first to report the second charge of molestation.
Diane has been at the center of countless other major news stories as well. She was the first to report the story of rape at the Kennedy compound in Palm Beach, Florida and to identify William Kennedy Smith as the accused. And Dimond has been praised for her hard-hitting interviews with a number of infamous prison inmates including: Pamela Smart, a school teacher serving a life sentence for enticing her high school lover to kill her husband; James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr.; Jeffery McDonald, the convicted "Fatal Vision Killer"; Kenneth Bianchi, the convicted "Hillside Strangler" and Dimond is the only reporter to have ever interviewed Richard Allen Davis, the convicted killer of Polly Klass. Diane Dimond began her broadcasting career in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the 50 thousand watt KOB Radio she wrote and anchored the morning newscasts and her investigative series on corruption within the local sheriff's department earned her the prestigious Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. In 1976, Dimond moved across the country to Washington, DC to anchor newscasts for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." In 1980 she became Correspondent for the RKO Radio Network, assigned to cover Capitol Hill, the White House and various Washington agencies. She became the networks National Political Correspondent and covered the campaigns of both President Ronald Reagan and his challenger Walter Mondale.
Finally making a move into television in 1986 Dimond's first TV news job was at the flagship CBS Station in New York. At WCBS she earned several awards for covering such groundbreaking stories as the "Baby M" surrogate mother case and a series on the devastating effects of child sexual abuse.
Dimond moved to syndicated television in 1990 when she became the investigative reporter for the program Hard Copy. Time Magazine cited Diane's continuing coverage of the Michael Jackson story as among "The Best TV of '93". Dimond also made headlines when she acquired and aired the actual interrogation tape of OJ Simpson being questioned by the Los Angeles police department. She then anchored the nationally syndicated program EXTRA and made headlines with her expose of the deceptive practices of the Jerry Springer show, among other investigative reports. In 1998 Diane moved to NBC and partnered with Geraldo Rivera to co-anchor CNBC's nightly newscast, UpFront Tonight. Among other top-shelf stories she anchored extensive live reports from Washington on the impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton. After moving to MSNBC Dimond hosted the series, "Missing Persons", anchored major news blocks and, among other stories, covered the 2000 presidential campaign, traveling with three of the candidates, George W. Bush, Al Gore and Ralph Nader. Dimond also became known as the correspondent who spent 35 straight days outside the Vice President's residence in Washington as the nation awaited the final, controversial recount of the vote.
Following the September 11th 2001 terror attack in New York City Diane anchored live programs on the Fox News Channel where she specialized in the network's continuing coverage of the war on terrorism. Her live interviews with military and policy newsmakers were often quoted by other news organizations.
After leaving Court TV to promote her book on the Michael Jackson case Diane finally took some time off to be with her family and begin research on another book. She continues to appear as a television host and pundit and has a passion for syndicated radio having co-hosted a morning radio show for the now defunct Greenstone Media Group. Dimond lives in Rockland County, New York with her husband, fellow broadcast journalist Michael Schoen and their two cats, Miles and May.
[edit] Quotes
"My office phone was crackling and popping. And I thought that was kind of weird. But then I started telling people things on the phone that would come back to me through strange sources.
And so my husband and I devised a little red herring, to talk about a supposed Anthony Pellicano special I was working on, and, oh, it will be on in the next couple of days. And not 20 minutes later, I got a call from my legal department staying, "Are you working on an Anthony Pellicano special? Oh, we have to know about this."
And I said, "No, where did you hear from this?" Well, it was from one of the attorney's offices, one of the attorneys that hired Anthony Pellicano." - Diane Dimond
"I`ll put my knowledge up against yours any day. And I have not spent the last 12 years covering him... I covered him in `93 and then I went on to cover the presidential politics, presidential impeachment... and you know, you are pretty difficult to talk to because you never listen, Debra... You know, this is the same sort of treatment I`ve gotten for 12 years. They don`t like the message. They don`t like facts coming out so suddenly I`m biased. There are never any specifics given. I reported with you for, what, a year at Court TV on Michael Jackson... I defy you, Debra Opri, to sit down and make me a list of where I was biased and prove me wrong... Come on, I`ll do it with you anytime. I`ll argue this... because I know a lot more about this subject than you do." - Diane Dimond
"Yes, the little boy and his family were in a mall, and they saw the televisions in one of the electronic stores and saw what the verdict was.
I got lucky enough to be with the prosecution team after some of the initial interviews. And they all gathered at a lead detective`s house. They had a drink, and then Ron Zonen, the assistant DA, dialed the little boy`s number and they got him on the phone. And I -- I tell this story in the book. It was -- you know, these big, burly, tough prosecutors, these lawyers who had been fighting it out for four-and-a-half months in that trial, had tears in their eyes, Nancy, as they talked to this boy. And they just kept saying over and over, Son, we believed you. We believed you.
The district attorney, Tom Sneddon, got on the phone with him and he said, Son, you`re going to have a fine life. You got a new stepfather. Your mother loves you. You`re at a great school now. Nobody knows who you are. You just go forward and live your life, and know if you need anything, you call us.
And I came away from that moment, watching them, thinking, these -- there was no doubt in this prosecution team`s mind that this boy was telling the truth. He said he was molested at least twice, probably more, but he couldn`t remember because he was drunk. And they believed that if he was making it up, he would have said 20 times, 30 times. They really love this kid." - Diane Dimond
"Anybody that alleges molestation, has had it occurred to them... I wish them godspeed" - Diane Dimond
"Oh, no, I hear he did pay Mesereau. And I hear that Geragos got paid, too. But not poor Brian." - Diane Dimond
"Because I‘m an investigative reporter and there‘s two things you don‘t do. You don‘t reveal sources and you don‘t give an opinion." - Diane Dimond
"Yoo-hoo. Yoo-hoo. Can I remind everybody about the elephant in the room here? There was a young boy testifying today that he was molested by Michael Jackson. I mean we‘re still talking about whether or not he was wearing jammies when he got here. You know and I think that that was part of the strategy, Dan, is what I‘m getting at, if there was a strategy here. Michael Jackson didn‘t comb his hair all day. He sat there looking disheveled, to make—perhaps the cynical would say and a lot of people here on media row are saying it, all the eyes were on Michael Jackson all day. They weren‘t on that little boy on the stand." - Diane Dimond
"Yes, this is the nine-page proposal that Michelle reported on over the weekend, stunning most of America. It really—it‘s an amazing document coming from the brother who was so out front during and before and after the trial, saying my brother was the victim. My brother was innocent. Now, on these pages, he doesn‘t say that" - Diane Dimond
"Child molesters are our next door neighbors. They're everywhere. There the priests in the parish. They're the butcher down the block." - Diane Dimond
"I don't dislike Michael Jackson. I'd like to know the truth about him. Why did he give me an interview? Because I asked him. I had the story. I said, "Are you going to comment or not?" I've known him for ten years. Not that we're good buddies or anything. But I think he felt that I was going to report it. And if I was going to do it, I should have as many facts as he could give me." - Diane Dimond
"Well, I think that Tom Mesereau started off really strong with her and almost tried to take the state witness and turn her into a defense witness. And he made some very strong points, that it was all -- this was his point, that all these people around Michael Jackson, some of the unindicted co-conspirators, Mark Geragos, his own attorney, his brother, Jermaine, people like that -- they were the ones doing the manipulating and the conspiring, but not Michael Jackson. So that was good." - Diane Dimond
"We're all on what Rodney Melville calls the Melville diet. We come in at -- well, all the media has to be in by 8:15. And we get three quick little breaks throughout the day, where you're supposed to bring like a power bar or some fruit or something, and there is no lunch. Michael Jackson doesn't go anywhere for lunch. Nobody goes anywhere for lunch. And yeah, I've lost a couple of pounds, Nancy." - Diane Dimond
"I'm standing right outside the gates of Neverland. As we speak, there's a helicopter overhead. Actually, there's three helicopters overhead." - Diane Dimond
[edit] Media Appearances
Diane has appeared on both national and international media reporting on big cases and big stories. She has appeared on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," "Paula Zahn Now," "Larry King Live," "Showbiz Tonight," "Nancy Grace" and "Reliable Sources." She has appeared on Fox News' "Fox & Friends," "Dayside," "The Big Story," and "The O'Reilly Factor." She has also appeared on MSNBC's "The Abrams Report," "Countdown," "Rita Cosby: Live & Direct," and "The Situation w/ Tucker Carlson. She was an NBC News Analyst for the "Today show" and other NBC News programs during the Michael Jackson case. She also appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" and CBS's "Early Show."
